Lethal Injection Chamber in Terre Haute Indiana
The United States Supreme Court rejected a request to stay the execution of a convicted female double “murderer”. The rejected plea, paved the way for the first execution of a female in the state in almost 100 hundred years.
Teresa Lewis, 41, died of lethal injection on Thursday in the state of Virginia. She was convicted of the murders of her husband and stepson. According to court records, Lewis exchanged money and sex for the murders carried out by two hired men.
In 2000, Teresa Lewis and Julian Clifton Lewis Jr. met while working at a textile factory in Danville. The couple later married. The U.S. Army Reserve called Julian’s son Charles to active duty in 2002. Before leaving for duty, Charles purchased a $250,000 life insurance policy and named his father the beneficiary.
Court documents state Lewis offered herself as well as her 16-year-old daughter for sex to Shallenberger and Fuller. Lewis was present when Lewis, 51, and his son, who was 25, were shot. Allegedly, Lewis fumbled through her husband’s pockets in searching for money and delayed calling 911 for almost an hour.
Governor Bob McDonnell refused to reassess Lewis’s requests for clemency. Attorneys for Lewis argued new evidence should be reviewed that could refute cause for the death penalty. James E. Rocap III, Lewis’s attorney claims that his client is borderline mentally retarded. Rocap also claims that one of the gunmen admits to manipulating Lewis into believing he loved her, using her emotional weakness as a means to accomplish his own selfish objectives.
The Supreme Court has not made any public statements regarding the case other than two of the three women justices, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor voted in favor of clemency of Lewis.